Open clouds

Internet security and privacy are important issues to all who use the Internet particularly in more recent times where we attach profiles including personal information and images to our social network sites. Clouds are a metaphor for online storage of data as opposed to working with software and data stored on servers of the owners of that information. It has been described as a platform for computing and communication linking millions of users to thousands of computers simultaneously (Nelson 2009)

'Building an open cloud' (Nelson 2009) explains that there can be three ways we go about the creation of this cloud Internet framework.

1. 'Many Clouds' - in which separate unconnected cloud platforms based on proprietary software in which the author asserts that the potential for new applications and closer collaboration would be lost.

2.'Hazy Skies' - in which data but not software could move between the different clouds which would make it difficult for the users to combine data and services operating in different clouds.

3.'Open Cloud' - in which there is a single global cloud to maximise the collaboration enabling users to assemble software and data easily to meet their needs.

As far as security is concerned, with the open cloud the author suggests that privacy enhancing technologies could be dispersed through out the cloud, it is easy to understand that although most concerns lie with the most open varieties of web use, this is also the easiest way to attain a central and consistent policy basis that is more easily distributed.

Users favour a more open approach to the availability of software and data on an open basis, the freedom that comes from breaking away from proprietary technologies, restricting the transfer of data over different platforms, however they are also concerned with privacy, copyrite and security.

Government policy to restrict access and collaboration by censoring the Internet could thwart the benefits of an open, global cloud which supports the economy, social interactions and innovation. The concerns of privacy and security would be best addressed in an open cloud instead of tailoring separate policies for separate clouds resulting in inconsistent policy and application.



Nelson, M.R. (2009). Building an open cloud [Cloud computing as platform]. Science, 324(5935, 1656-1657.